THIRTEEN: An Unexpected Feast
The following morning the direction the hunters took led them toward high land. The air was gray and a little misty. Out of the mist Nomusa heard a voice calling out to her. It was Damasi’s. His teeth flashed white as he smiled at Nomusa. They walked along side by side, saying little; the long climb made them both rather short of breath.
“It is a long way to the elephant country,” Nomusa said at last.
“Yes,” Damasi replied. “Some say five sleeps away, some say more.”
By noonday they were high up in the hills. Below them they saw the rolling, grassy plains. The hot rays of the sun were beginning to make the air before Nomusa’s eyes appear in crooked, glassy waves.
When the hunting party reached a waterfall that cascaded over boulders to the rocks and plains below, Zitu ordered a halt. Nomusa hoped it was so that they might eat. She was not used to going without food for such long periods. At home, when the children were hungry, they ate. There was always enough.
While Nomusa and Damasi and the other boys set to work finding dry twigs and branches with which to start a fire, the older hunters cooled their perspiring bodies under the waterfall. They laughed and enjoyed themselves immensely, shouting and splashing each other.
However, when they saw the fire well under way, the men quickly came out from under the waterfall. Taking their weapons they went to look for game.
Nomusa and Damasi and Zabala took their turn under the splashing water. Emerging cool and refreshed, they stood in the sun to dry their dripping bodies.